Howard Dean helped define Democrats

February 20, 2004

He was nowhere, then everywhere. Before Iowa and New Hampshire, he had momentum and money. He had Al Gore, eager students and enthusiastic backers.

But after 17 state contests, Howard Dean had won none. In the end, voters chose electability - someone they thought could beat President Bush. That calculation didn't include Dean, and on Wednesday the former governor of Vermont announced an end to his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Some voters suspected a lack of gravitas; some found Dean reckless. Some didn't like him; some thought only a seasoned member of Congress with foreign-policy experience could take on Bush in a post-9-11 world. He was seen variously as too angry, too unpredictable, too far outside the establishment. This wasn't helped by the mediafest over the Iowa pep-rally speech that culminated in what came to be known as the "Dean scream."

In any case, Dean dropped fast. Given his lackluster results, he did the right thing in leaving the race - and especially in encouraging his supporters to stay in the party and work for the eventual nominee. The important goal, he told them, "remains defeating George W. Bush in November, and I hope that you will join me in doing everything we can to support the Democrats this fall."

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If that nominee succeeds in November, he will owe much to Howard Dean. Not so long ago, Americans looked at the budding Democratic race and saw little to kindle their enthusiasm. Those who held public office seemed cowed by President Bush's wartime popularity - and those who didn't seemed like candidates without staying power. But soon Howard Dean, a doctor and ex-governor, started gaining traction with a grass-roots, Internet-heavy campaign that raised $41 million in just a year. "Meet-ups" entered the vocabulary.

What fueled the excitement? Probably the same thing that caused his downfall: He had clearly made a decision to say what he meant, to speak bluntly, to avoid the politician's trap of trying to be all things to all people. He ripped into President Bush's case for the Iraq war. He attacked Bush's No Child Left Behind as an unfunded mandate. He threw caution to the winds.

That was his appeal, and that is also what made people nervous. But what will last is the impact his out-there style had on the other Democrats. In so stridently taking on Bush, he gave them the courage to counter a popular president at a time when national security was foremost in many voters' minds.

Ditto on the economy, health care, campaign-finance reform and the influence of special interests, gay rights … you name it.

Dean led the Democratic candidates toward a more robust campaign against President Bush's record and agenda. As he put it on Wednesday, "We have demonstrated to other Democrats that it is a far better strategy to stand up against the right-wing agenda of George W. Bush than it is to cooperate with it. We have led this party back to considering what its heart and soul is …."

Dean's claim is legitimate. He helped the Democrats define themselves - and therefore set the stage for a vigorous race next fall.